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For almost two decades, Dean Foster has been involved in researching, writing about, and consulting on the nature of culture and its role in society, work and politics in a globalizing world. As founder and former Worldwide Director of Berlitz Cross-Cultural, as well as the founder and President of his own company, Dean has played a central role in the development of the field of cross-cultural training and consulting.
As an author and commentator, his works have focused on the intersection of national culture and human behavior; as visiting lecturer and faculty, his research and presentations revolve around the development of cultural theory in the post-modern, or post-global, world. Dean works with most major Fortune 500 companies, national governments and NGOs (the United Nations and World Trade Institutes, among others), and as guest lecturer and faculty for a variety of premier educational institutions, such as Harvard Business School, Columbia University School of Business, Darden Business School, and others. His work has taken him to over 65 countries. He is a frequent guest commentator on culture, work and international social issues on CNN, CNBC, and numerous radio shows; he is regularly interviewed in print media, such as Newsweek, USA Today, the New York Times, and elsewhere.
Dean is a familiar presenter at major international conferences related to international cultural issues. He is an active member of and speaker at the annual international conferences of the National Foreign Trade Council, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the International Institute for Human Resources (IIHR), the Global Business Association, the Employee Relocation Council, and other organizations, and served as an Executive Board member of the International Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR).
Dean has written many articles as well as the book,Bargaining Across Borders, which was voted as one of the top ten business books of the year in 1994 by the American Library Association. Presently, Dean's new book series, The WorldWise Guides to Global Etiquette, began with the release in 2000, with The Global Etiquette Guide to Europe and The Global Etiquette Guide to Asia, followed up in 2002 with The Global Etiquette Guide to Africa & The Middle East and The Global Etiquette Guide to Latin America. Dean is a Contributing Editor with National Geographic, writing the monthly "CultureWise" column, appearing in National Geographic Traveler Magazine.
Dean is on the faculty of Fordham University, Graduate School of Business, NYC, and he received his Master's degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, NYC.
Most Requested Topics:
Do Expatriates Really Need Cross-Cultural Training?: Understanding the values, attitudes and behaviors of people in various countries is key to knowing how to do business with them. So often, we take for granted that everyone's culture is similar to ours. To help companies gain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace by understanding and learning about other cultures, training organizations, such as Windham International, offer cross-cultural training.
Western Workers, Eastern Ethos--The Ying And Yang Of Managing In Asia: Over the next decade, a staggering 75% of the projected growth in international business will come from the world's emerging markets--particularly from China, and its neighbors in the Pacific Rim. Clearly, American business and the American workers who follow are packing their bags and going very Far East. And therein lies the challenge: East meeting West. As technology brings the world together, clashes of cultural differences are magnified, ironically, just as we learn about new ways of working and living together on the planet. Like the two parts of the universal whole, as represented in the Buddhist symbol of yin and yang, both East and West must ultimately accept that they are each only half the story of what, only with the other, will result in a perfect combination.
Gender and Work in a Global World: Regardless of the reasons, men and women certainly are different, and if those differences are made clear within a particular culture, those same differences become ever more striking between cultures. The different ways that different cultures handle the two genders makes working across cultures a challenge to members of either gender, but especially so for women, who, in many cultures, are traditionally ascribed a subordinate position in the workplace. These challenges have grown dramatically as organizations have increased their global operations over the last two decades, and have been acutely felt by male and female managers and the organizations they work for. Predictably, individual behaviors and organizational policies have both helped to change but also reinforce some of the difficulties.
Taking Cultural Training into the Global Millennium: Suddenly, despite the Y2K fizzle, the magic of millennial change is beginning to make its mark. There is a growing awareness of things "then" and "now", of "the Old Way" and "the New Way", of "the Establishment Economy" and "the New Economy". There is nothing magical about the millennial marker, but there is undeniably a palpable "then" and "now" which has settled into almost all aspects of human endeavor, including the field of intercultural training.
Deciphering The Mysterious American Challenges of Working & Living in the US: While many Americans may assume that everyone really wants to be American, and given the chance to live in the U.S., actually become American, it is not reality. You won't find an American lurking underneath every other nationality. Believing that people are essentially the same, and that given the chance most people would opt to live typically American lives, is an American myth that mirrors American egalitarian values more than it mirrors reality. The fact is, many non-Americans can find living and working in the U.S. a challenging and difficult assignment. This has important consequences for companies relocating employees and families into the U.S. Just as organizations have learned the cold, bottom-line lessons of lost investments and human resource disasters when sending Americans off to foreign lands ill-prepared, companies must consider similar consequences when bringing in non-Americans for life and work within the U.S. Adjusting to the U.S. requires the same kind of cross-cultural training.
Managing the Dragon & the Tiger: Now for the first time, your managers can develop the global skills they need in order to work more effectively with both their Chinese and Indian colleagues. This new, combined cross-cultural program for both China and India blends the best of our in-depth 2-day "Doing Business With China" and our 2-day "Doing Business With India" programs into one comprehensive 2-day program that makes it easy for you and your team to learn all they need to know about the business cultures of these two emerging Asian giants.
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